Great Lent is meant to be a time of personal reflection and self-discovery, a time to get to know ourselves, our abilities and limitations, better. It is a time for us to discover which temptations affect us the most and find out why they do so in order to help us in our fight against them. Great Lent is also a time of meditation and contemplation concerning the world, what has happened in it throughout its history, how Christ’s resurrection from the dead has influenced it, and what its end shall be like. To to this, it is good to consider the way the world was like before the advent of Christ and try to put ourselves in the experiences of the people who lived then. That way, we will better understand the various hopes and preparations around the world for the coming of Christ, using that to help us reflect upon our own hope for what is to happen as the eschaton, when Christ comes again. Thus, Great Lent is a time for us to consider humanity, the human condition, and the ways God has worked with humanity throughout history, both before the advent of Christ, and in the ways God is now with us in and through the incarnation of the God-man and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon us all.
Many of the greatest patristic homilies on texts found in the Tanakh, the “Old Testament,” such as Genesis, Exodus, or Job, were preached during the time of Lent. This is because, for most of the year, the liturgical celebration was with the Divine Liturgy, and it only offered readings from the Gospels and other New Testament writings. They did not read from the Tanakh during the Divine Liturgy. However, during Great Lent, except for special feast days and Sundays, the Divine Liturgy was not celebrated; instead, worship services centered around Vespers, and with it, readings from the Law (Torah) and the prophets. It was Lent, therefore, most would have heard homilies related to those books which were not normally read. Examples of these homilies include St. Basil’s Hexaemeron and St. John Chrysostom’s Homilies on Genesis . Why was this the way it was? Because the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the morning, on Sundays, and it was seen as a paschal celebration, having us reflect upon and experience the light of grace brought to the world by Christ, while Vespers was (and is) celebrated at night, when the sky is dark, but not without a light of its own (the moon and stars), reminding the faithful of the time before Christ and that during that time, the light of grace was still shared with humanity (but in a lesser and more indirect fashion). Eventually, as the faithful wanted communion, the Presanctified Liturgy was developed; it is mostly a Vespers service, with readings from the Tanakh, but it has with it a communion service, so that in it the faithful are given presanctified communion (that is, communion that was previously consecrated and preserved for the service). This practice continues in the Byzantine tradition, where the normative celebration during the weekdays of Great Lent is the Presanctified Liturgy, while, in the West, the remnant of this tradition is found on Holy Friday, when the Mass is not normally celebrated.
For 2026, I have decided to write a series of reflections on some of the topics which, in the Byzantine and patristic tradition, were and are mostly discussed during Great Lent, and not at other times of the year, due to the lectionary, that is, the texts read when the faithful come together for the Divine Liturgy. I hope to write on the creation of the world, the fall of humanity, the way the people of Israel got trapped in Egypt, and the liberation they experienced through God’s work with Moses, and some of the lessons we can learn from them today. While I want to deal with contemporary questions, some which are harder to answer than others, I also want to do so in as simple a fashion. That is, what I write is not intended to offer exhaustive answers to those questions. I want to explore what it means to be human, as well as what we are to understand concerning the relationship of humanity with the rest of creation. I will use selected texts from Scripture, especially from the Tanakh, which will give a foundation for my reflections, texts normally preached upon during the time of the Great Fast. While not preaching on them myself, I will comment upon them in light of my theological, historical, and scientific understandings. And while I am fond of the allegorical (and spiritual) methods of interpretation, I plan to give as simple a presentation as possible, dealing with the most basic issues, which often get lost when allegorical or spiritual readings of Scripture are presented.
I plan to have these reflections released during the Sundays of Great Lent, replacing the reflections I normally do, which tend to be reflections on the texts read at the Divine Liturgy on the Sunday when my work is published. Nonetheless, I will still consider the liturgical cycle, and the feast being celebrated on the Sunday in which a text is released by trying to make some connection to the feast and what I write, though often it will be in subtle way, and the average reader might not make the connection.
I hope that these reflections will give both myself and my readers a chance to reconsider and reengage the creation stories in Genesis, and with them, offer ways we can better understand the creation of the world and its recreation in Christ. I also hope that those who read what write will end up with a better appreciation of the the way we can find truths coming from even the most mythic elements found in Holy Scripture. Doing this, I will engage those texts, the doctrines and dogmas which come from them, and show how they can be and should be complemented by what we have learned from the sciences. We must acknowledge that the creation stories are not pure history. This, to be sure, is not anything new; even the earliest commentaries and homilies on Genesis did this, with St. Augustine, among many others, saying we should not take the six-day creation story as literal history. But, today, as our understanding of the world around us is far different from than those who came before us, even those who lived a few centuries ago, I plan to use a methodology used in the past, but bring to it the new insights we have today. This means, what I produce will differ, in part, from what many saints and theologians in the past have said, but in a way which takes their wisdom and embraces it as best as possible. Only by accepting both science and revelation, and how they can and should complement each other (instead of being put in contention with each other) can we truly understand Scripture and what God reveals to us through it.
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N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.
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